The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
Clutches for motor vehicle with manual transmissions provide a frictional, variable torque transmitting coupling between the vehicle prime mover and the transmission. Because of this function, significant heat can build up in the clutch disc plates, especially if the vehicle is driven hard or the clutch is operated partially engaged such as during abusive vehicle launch or hill/hold events.
This heat build-up can occur relatively quickly, and can approach temperatures that may cause significantly increased wear and possibly damage the clutch. To overcome the heat build-up concern, some have devised audible or visual warning systems to alert the vehicle operator if the clutch temperature is too high.
Although experienced vehicle operators may readily respond to such warnings by changing their driving behavior to remediate the problem, a less experienced operator may not know what corrective action to take such that warning events stop occurring.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that approaches to detect and warn vehicle operators when their driving behavior may be causing damage to the vehicle's clutch but aspects of the disclosed exemplary embodiment seeks to provide better solutions.